LOL..
I bought an RTL SDR dongle last year when I got into all this.. plugged it in, loaded the software, and I was listening to the air in under 10 minutes.
Of course, I was using the little telescopic antenna that came with it so about all I could pick up was a few radio stations in my rural area.
Then I bought an ICOM 746 and the dongle went into storage.. After learning lots and lots using the ICOM, I decided to break out the dongle again and use what I've learned..
Hooked it to my G5RV dipole antenna hanging 60 feet in the air and plugged in the dongle and NOTHING.. The software wouldn't recognize the dongle even though my device manager did..
I spent 5 hours loading and unloading drivers, deleting everything, reloading.. cleaning registry entries, downloading the newest NetFramwork.. and NOTHING.. I must have rebooted my computer 15 times..
Then my wife says "Why don't you try plugging it into another USB port?".. I Freaking HATE IT when she walks into a room and makes a comment about something she knows nothing about and ends up being right... Its infuriating.....
As soon as I changed the USB port, it fired right up like it was laughing at me for 6 hours.
And now.... I can hear stuff I've never heard before! That G5RV hanging 60 feet in the air brings in stuff I would have never thought I could hear.. I mean WOW! I'm picking up FM radio like none of my home stereo's could hear.. and the signal is soooo clean and crisp...
Dialing up the 144 (2 meter) band, I was listening to a guy in Bad Axe Michigan.. That's almost 100 miles away!!!
This thing is awesome! Its worth the effort to get it working.